Meet you in the server room where outbound access is disabled for
security reasons and cvs is not installed on fileservers anyway.
Stop thinking like a developer with full software support infrastructure
and net access. Field people rely on simple console text editors for a
reason - shit happens, and complex systems fail more often than simple
ones. Just assume no convenience will be available and you're be not far
from the reality you have today in countless enterprise or home
premises.
%changelog is perfectly adapted to rpm usage. This is not one of the
"features" like rpm groups no one ever found a serious use for.
I'm not talking about removing ALL of them. Just the REALLY old ones.
tell me - when was the last time you needed, in your server room, to
know what changes were made in 1998 to a package?
-sv